O's Mean Hugs, Not Kisses
by Deina Youree Sage Astustiburi
Summary: Medli has liked Link ever since he saved her on the mountain in Dragon Roost Cavern. But Link is heading off with the pirates, and a letter he sends tells her they can only remain friends. One-shot.


**Long time no fanfics, people! It's really just about Medli having a crush on Link and his letter bidding her good-bye before he leaves the Great Sea with Tetra and everyone else on the ship. And before any of you think I'm betraying my love for Telink stories, I'm still a die-hard Telinker, but I just came up with this fluff, and it takes place a couple of months after Wind Waker. **

**Disclaimer: I do not own Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker (unforgunetly). LoZ belongs to Shigeru Miyamoto and all the other amazing people at the Nintendo industry. I salute you!**

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O's Mean Hugs, Not Kisses

---

He had been thinking about what had happened. As a matter of fact, it was ALL he thought about.

The past few months had been stressful, saving the Great Sea and defeating Ganondorf in the world below, with Zelda, who was in fact one of his best friends in the world. Even though his and Tetra's relationship was mostly of both him and her fighting over the silliest of issues, they shared a bond that ran deeper than flesh, all the way down to the soul. He had to admit, he did like her. Alot. But if he were to ever admit this to her, she'd probably throw him overboard or just laugh in his face, so he thought it was best to keep his mouth shut.

Link had stayed on Outset for about a month after his adventures before deciding to go with the pirates to search for the next Hyrule. As much as he wanted to stay home and just do what boys do, which is sleep and eat, going back to his everyday life would be quite boring after he had been through, and he decided to leave with Tetra and her crew, just to add excitment to his once uneventful and dull life.

Also along with the thoughts about the past, he also thought about the Earth sage, Medli, quite often. How was she doing? Was she back from the Earth Temple? How was she taking things in? He thought of her as no more than a friend, but friends can worry about friends, can't they?

---

Medli sat on the mountaintop, in the small arena where she had been held captive by Ganon's servants and where Link had saved her. From that very moment she had taken a liking to him, as ashamed she was to admit it. She was Rito, he was Hylian. It could never work. They could only remain friends, and that's what upset her the most.

She would alway be up there, daydreaming and assisting Valoo whenever he needed help. Her day was mostly made up of helping Valoo, playing her heart, and obviously daydreaming about Link. She had recieved a letter from his sister, Aryll, she remembered, saying that he was with the pirates and probably wouldn't be back for a long while. She held on to that last thread of hope, hoping he'd come back, to at least say good-bye. A letter would be good enough.

She sighed. _I should just give up_, she thought to herself. _It's never going to happen..._

---

It was late at night, and althought it had been a day full of washing the deck, making something or everyone to eat and washing pirates dirty underwear, Link was wide awake, lying in bed. They were going to keep going west until they hit something. The pirates looked like they wanted to protest, but fearing Tetra's 'wrath' if they were to say something, they kept their mouth shut and obeyed their superior.

_She's not **that **bad_, Link thought to himself, looking at the look on the pirates faces when she told them where they were going. He would roll his eyes when he played back the moment in his head.

Then he started going over the good-byes he had said to everyone before he left. He said good-bye to Aryll and grandma, Orca, Sturgeon and everyone else on Outset, the Koroks and the Great Deku Tree, friends of his on Windfall, and Quill on one of his visits to Outset to deliver everyone's mail.

Then he tried to remember saying good-bye to Medli. Unlike all his other last encounters, he couldn't remember saying good-bye to her. In fact, he hadn't even said goodbye to her at all. He sat up and jumped out of his bed and climbed up the ladder and walked into Tetra's cabin. It was small. There was just a desk, chair, a dresser, a mirror, a small lamp and bed. There were photo's hanging on the walls and in picture frames.

One that caught his intrest was a one hanging above her bed. There was a small, blonde little girl with big, bright eyes, obviously Tetra. And she was sitting on the lap of a woman, also with big eyes, and she had long, waist length hair. Probably her mother. Tetra had told him about her once. Her name was Sora, she had dirty blonde hair and blue eyes, identical to hers. She refused to talk about her father, though, even though he was desprate enough to fall to his legs and beg.

He walked over to the desk and grabbed a piece of paper and some ink, not caring that he didn't have a feather to write with. _I'll just use my baby finger_, he thought to himself, and was glad to see that it could fit through the hole of the bottle.

He sat cross-legged on the bed, stuck his pinky finger in the ink, and very messily (is that even a word?), he wrote:

_Dear Medli,_

_ I am very sorry I wasn't able to go to Dragon Roost to say good-bye, so I'm writing to you in a letter. I'm sorry it's so messy. I'm writing with my baby finger._

He grinned to himself. Medli would probably just roll her eyes and just skip to the last paragraph, thinking that the entire letter would be just full of his crappy puns and stupidity.

_I would have stopped by, but Tetra was eagar to go. You know her. And I was too busy doing these swabbie chores to stop by, anyway._

A pang of guilt stabbed at him. That was an excuse. He had saw everyone else, and he had tons of free-time on his hands in the evenings. He had just forgot about her, as if she wasn't even there.

_I hope things go well for you, and you can't write back, we'll be moving around to much._

_Link_

_ooo_

_Ps. O's mean hugs, not kisses._

He smiled. Good, now I'll just mail it to her...

---

Medli was up in her arena a week later, when she heard another Rito land beside her. She looked up and smiled.

"Hey, Quill."

"Hi," he greeted quickly, taking a letter out of his delivery bag. "It's for you."

She nodded, taking the letter from him and he flew away, and only when he was out of sight that she went to see who it was from.

_Medli_

_Dragon Roost Island_

That was on the front of envolope. She turned around and beamed at that name that was on the back.

_Link Harikain_

She grinned, and teared the envolope open, and read the letter eagarly, and like Link said in his letter, she rolled his eyes at the sentence telling her it was written with his pinky finger. Who cared? It was from _him!_

She read the letter, happy to hear from him, even though there wasn't any detail of how life was going for him. But when she read the post script, she could've sworn she could've exploded with despair.

_O's are hugs, not kisses._

She crumpled up the letter and threw it off the side, and fought back the tears. _If only he knew..._


End file.
